Glass Message Board
Glass Mall => Glass News => Topic started by: Sach on June 05, 2011, 02:21:46 AM
-
Interesting but sad article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/business/global/04murano.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1307152815-HImAmGt4sTzUo1dGtFxRmg
-
Thanks for the article. As you say, interesting but sad.
David
-
Very sad....and a significant loss. One thing I am always stunned by, even though Ivo has mentioned the value many a time, is the quote
"police had confiscated 11 million Chinese glass pieces ...." which according to the article have a reported value of Euro1.30 each.
I think that says it all. The masses want 'chuck away' everything, they want it now and they don't care about 'unique' - that market-led desire comes at a price to the seller when you are in a buyers market.
m
-
What is annoying and short-sighted is that the extant glassworks are slowly being muscled out of the centre, making room for hotels, and are forced to move into more industrialised areas... but the big reason the island attracts tourists is its historic glass industry. How tourist-friendly is a swathe of corrugated metal warehouses built on isolated scrubland?
Surely a self-defeating move akin to, say, knocking down a supermarket to make room for its shopper's cars?
-
The push toward prosperity always seems ugly, but it is how things go. The near loss of the glass industry in Murano is no surprise. People do not support the glass industry anymore. It isn't just 911 and the downturn in the economy, there are several factors. Pino Signoretto did an interview a few years back that said basically the same thing this article did. There is no interest in the young people. Watching our own young people with cell phones with computer games, whiling away the hours twittering and texting, it is easy to understand why the number of kids who want to work the furnace is dwindling... especially given that there is no money in it anymore. From what Pino said, the cost of labor and energy made staying in business difficult, particularly in Italy that does not support its glass industry. Pino said that he had greater support when he visits the USA. Maybe he will come here now. YEA! Hope, hope. Italy's loss is our gain.
One of the biggest problems I see in the art glass market is that it out-prices the wallets of most people. The article pointed out the why's of the high prices, but it doesn't cure the problem that most people cannot afford it. The money people can put into discretionary spending has become less and less.
I don't have any answers. I just have a strong desire to buy a piece of new Murano glass when I read about the problems.
-
Sad...... :cry:
Surely a self-defeating move akin to, say, knocking down a supermarket to make room for its shopper's cars?
-
I think it is excellent that one declining economic activity is being supplemented with another viable one and I would not draw the conclusion that hotel development is pushing the glassmakers out. It is the way of the world, in someplaces the demise of manual glass industry went quicker than in others. Scotland, Belgium, Sweden were all too late in reconstructing the industry resulting in huge job losses. In Murano they at least realise that money must be made and if it is not in glass than it must be in tourism. Good on them.
-
The article states that just this is happening:
In Murano, administratively a district of Venice, discussion has centered on the “Sacca San Mattia,” a 7-hectare, or 17-acre, plot of abandoned land that is to be reconverted to industrial and artisanal use. Sacca refers to land that has emerged from the lagoon.
Murano’s municipal officials envision transporting some glass factories from the center to this northwestern spot.
I've nothing against change and modernisation - but when a prestige industry sells on its historicity as much as its craftsmanship, it makes little sense to cut those very visceral historic links that the tourists come to see... just to fit more tourists in.
-
The key part of this for all of us is to stop selling our better bits. If you have 20 years in front of you then you could make a fair amount from a art form that has departed.
Sad but it is for young people to define their future, baby boomers like me have had their time.
-
Hi All
The Murano Glass industry is still surviving and quite well. With the expanding wealth lf many emerging markets, things are on the up and up. What people do not realise is that there are only a few furnaces which still actually operate on the Isalands of Murano, most have their actual operating furnaces on the mainland with showrooms on the island (maybe a demo furnace on site). At last count, there were 176 showrooms scattered throughout the islands so competition is rife and this is where the drive to secure business, they sometimes resort to importing fake Chinese glass (only 1 furnace has been identified as doing this) to secure the tourist dollar and improve profit.
I can assure you that the industry is still going strong and long may it continue to do so
Dean
-
Something I'm noticing is there is a greater turn toward flamework in Murano. This makes so much sense, given the cost of energy. I don't know how big the flamework business is there, but I am hearing more of the people who do it.
-
Try comparing the cost of a fabulous piece of glass by a master - and a fairly ordinary (but good) painting by somebody you've never heard of. The glass is likely to cost less.
Glass has not yet found its proper place in the "echelons" of art.
I can understand building hotels on the island - but why ghastly anonymous multinational chain ones?
Why not try to encourage small local and individual businesses?
-
It's good that the furnaces have moved to the mainland as it was just too expensive to keep producing on the island. Everything had to be imported, mind you, everything and then it all had to be exported including all the waste and garbage. Transportaion costs had to be enormous and it wasn't possible to bring any well sized boats to the island for shipping. Every time you have to move a box it gets to be expensive. As I recall they were not setup to handle 40' containers coming directly from the island, but that may have changed in recent years. I had also heard that some of the furnaces had been purchased by Chinese financial groups. They have lots of cash and in the long run it may help sustain the production of glass in the area. Trying to get all the gas and electricity to the island had to get more difficult and costly every year. The world's wealth is changing locations and so with it goes the market for luxury goods including glass.